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All americans do focus on stamina, gym, never tired on the mat, i like so much taylor, my fav wrestler, he is as tech and plastic like me, and about Snyder, he does Bench press 200 kg, for what? idk, he's 2x world champ he knows better. But i never train in gym, never do cross, I was always weaker in physical strength in the fight. I'm very weak physically, i like wrestling, it's like art for me, now many wrestlers turned wrestling into sumo, only push and step out, i get relax when wrestle, I enjoy the wrestling- Ilyas Bekbulatov

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Thanks for posting. That's the 3rd or 4th time I've heard a Russian express some concern about Snyder's weight training. They might be right... at a certain point you sacrifice flexibility and range of motion for strength, right? Maybe it doesn't matter... doesn't seem to be hurting Snyder in any case.

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Some of these guys who claim to be "weak" are actually exceptionally strong in terms of positioning and functional strength. The Russians and Eastern Euros I wrestled were some of the strongest people I ever competed against in terms of trying to move them and create breaks in their position. I was big into lifting and had well above average strength in weight training terms but they made me feel like the weakling.

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Some of these guys who claim to be "weak" are actually exceptionally strong in terms of positioning and functional strength. The Russians and Eastern Euros I wrestled were some of the strongest people I ever competed against in terms of trying to move them and create breaks in their position. I was big into lifting and had well above average strength in weight training terms but they made me feel like the weakling.

There's also a bit of exaggeration going on when they say things like "I never train in the gym" or "I don't do strength training." What they really mean is that they don't do much traditional weight training with free weights. They do other things like heavy ropes, weighted pull ups, body weight exercises, etc.

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Only if you're not training in your full range of motions. Otherwise, lifting weights should increase ROM. Think more olympic lifter (snatch, C&J) and less powerlifter (bench press, squat, dead)

Fair enough, but at the very least you run the risk of decreasing ROM by over-training. I know they say lifting with full range of motion can actually improve flexibility... it just goes against what feels like common knowledge. How many people actually lift that way? Especially when we're talking about the kind of weight that Snyder puts up. If anyone is disciplined enough to train exactly the right way, it's him, but still.

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I wrestled with the Russians in '90s. One Russian is very soft. He doesn't use strength at all but uses the very specific techniques to trap me a lot. His soft approach certainly confuse hell out of my mental and physical. He easily overcome me at every time.

The other Russian doesn't use weight lifting but uses a variety of exercise such as heavy chain, large tire, heavy rope, etc. He is very quick and uses very specific techniques to trap my arm. It was painful.

These Russians mainly focused on techniques rather than conditioning. The only thing is that they may be bit out of breath toward the end.

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When we trained in Russia and Belarus, they had the giant hammer and tractor tire to bang on--great for torso/core strength. In addition, ropes, peg boards, chin up bars. They also said they took kids down to a local river where they lifted and tossed big stones. When I trained in Sweden, they had a very thorough system of buddy carries and lifts, again very much geared toward the core. The Cuban I've worked with also did buddy carries/lifts--incredibly strong guy. All very exceptionally innovative, intelligent people.

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Fair enough, but at the very least you run the risk of decreasing ROM by over-training. I know they say lifting with full range of motion can actually improve flexibility... it just goes against what feels like common knowledge. How many people actually lift that way? Especially when we're talking about the kind of weight that Snyder puts up. If anyone is disciplined enough to train exactly the right way, it's him, but still.

Snyder, and the Ohio State guys specifically, work with Dustin Myers..one of the best wrestling strength and conditioning guys out there. We also have many professional coaches at the IOC, and the RTCs who can program for strength as well as mobility. It's much more common to address flexibility and imbalance now than it was a couple decades ago.

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At the end of the day, resistance is resistance, whether in the form of a barbell or your own body. As long as you are overloading it in some form of way (heavier load for deadlifts, more reps for pullups, shorter rest periods, etc), you are probably going to see some adaptations by your body. No doubt many of the Russians are ridiculously strong with their functional training, but to say they don't do any weightlifting (even comparing to Snyder's freak workouts) is a little disingenious.

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Snyder does know better. All other factors being roughly equal, the stronger guy wins. The Russians would not be risking disqualification with anabolics otherwise. Strength is a major reason why Snyder is the best wrestler in the world, and every Russian who says lifting is time poorly spent would be better were they to lift consistently.